A Few Notes ...

First a few pictures courtesy of Troy ...

A good example of one of the many hike-a-bike sections on Los Pinos.


Andrew Lifting His Bike? I like this picture because it shows how many stops we had and how hot/tough the ride was.



Me Climbing Trabuco


Steep Descent. This section has scared me the two times I've descended it (Bell and Los Pinos). Still it's very rideable.



Hike!


"Can't See Bottom". No shame in walking this. I don't think I will ever be stupid enough to even attempt riding down this. It might not look that bad in the photo, but trust me it's bad. Really bad.



Some other notes ...

Went on a ride yesterday after work and I'm noticing a disturbing trend. I'm not sure what the reason is, but I've been sporting a super high heart rate on recent rides in Whiting.

Am I going out too hard? Is is the heat? Bad conditioning? I'm not sure what's going on, but it's not good. I frequently find myself at a sustained heart rate of 190-195, which is a cause for concern. I can only stay in that range for maybe 5-10 minutes before my body starts giving up.

I was able to recover ok on the ride yesterday, but it's pretty frustrating. A list of things I think it might be:

- Stress. Last few weeks have been stressful.
- Lack of sleep. I've been sleeping horribly lately
- Sick. Co-worker came in with a cold and I got it.
- Too much sugar. I've been eating more candy etc. lately.
- Poor conditioning. I haven't been that consistent with riding lately.
- Heat. It's HOT outside.
- Race mentality. I really want to get good times on my ride, so I might be pushing too hard.
- Tight HRM. Is the heart rate monitor on too tight? Does that affect my breathing?

All of things have some merit I think. Who knows though. I'll figure it out eventually.

In other news it felt awesome to pass about 10 people going up Mustard yesterday. Haha. Whiting is always an ego boost for me.

Bolder on Boulders

While I'm waiting for a grep to finish running at work I figured I'd finally post a ride report.

In the last few weeks I've done some tough rides and just haven't had the time to properly recap them. I wanted to write something up for the Bell Ridge ride on the Fourth of July, but I was just too lazy.

I'll sum up that ride in a haiku ala Andrew:

Bell Ridge is not fun
When you are under the sun
I have a white chest

I unzipped my jersey way down so everyone could see my white chest on the ride. It's probably a good thing the pictures "turned out blurry". Haha.


So the title of this post is to summarize my new found confidence on technical trails. This past Saturday I rode Los Pinos for the first time with Matt, Mark, Mark, Troy and Andrew and had a pretty good time. I'm starting to really trust my judgement when it comes to what I can try to ride and what I should walk. I'm content to walk some sections, but I also try to attempt sections I might not normally want to ride.

On with the ride report ... (maybe Troy will send us all pictures. *hint*)

It's tough getting up at 5:30AM. I will say that over the last year or so though that I've started to become more and more of a morning person. We'll leave it at that though.

The plan was to ride up to Blue Jay via San Juan (Old San Juan from Cocktail) and then over to the Trabuco/Los Pinos trailheads and then down Los Pinos. I had never been down Los Pinos and I was worried it was going to be hyper-technical etc. I worry sometimes not for my own safety, but for the safety of others. It's not the kind of trail you want someone breaking a bone on.

The ride up San Juan to Cocktail was cake. It really was. The pace was fine and the weather was great. I felt very strong and not fatigued at all. I really enjoyed the ride up to Cocktail. Our group met a Warrior's Society guy named Brian at Cocktail and he warned us about Los Pinos. It's funny that for all his warnings, it turned out to be easier than he made it sound.

He actually joined us to go up Old San Juan and he actually cleared *EVERYTHING* before splitting off from our group near Viejo Tie. I didn't think anyone could ride up some of the sections going up Old San Juan, but he did it. I was really impressed.

The rest of the trip to Blue Jay was awesome. I felt even stronger than earlier in the day and was able to gear way up and clear a lot of sections that on some other day I might walk. I had brought a ton of water and food and figured I could stay strong through the rest of the day. Wrong.

Blue Jay was abandoned as it is currently closed due to fire danger, but we were all able to refill on water, which was a life saver. The trip from Blue Jay to Los Pinos wasn't fun, but it wasn't murder either. It was hot outside, but at that point in the day it wasn't too bad.

The real fun started once we got to Los Pinos. There are a few hike-a-bike sections to start the trail off and it just sucked the life right out of me. I was feeling so strong and so good and after two hikes back to back I was feeling super drained. It's really demoralizing to realize how quickly you have lost your strength. All the planning and training feels like it's wasted.

Right at the peak of Los Pinos I cramped really bad. My left hamstring locked three times in a row and it was so bad that Mark had to massage the cramps out because I couldn't take my hands off the handlebars. The last lock was maybe the most painful cramp I've ever had. It was vicious.

I signed in at the book on Los Pinos and our group continued from there down Los Pinos. I honestly can't remember too much in order from this point. The Warrior's Society guy accurately described Los Pinos as a trail on the ridge that "dragon back's". That's the perfect way to think of it. It descends in general, but has quite a few sections that climb as you get to the next descent.

The trail was rugged in sections and very steep in others. It was also consistently loose, whether the terrain was sandy or rocky. I slid out a few times into the bushes on the side of the trail because I like to plan my crashes if I feel like I'm starting to lose control.

Towards the end of the trail I started to have major problems with my forearms and hands. I was unable to make a fist at one point, which was obviously a problem for braking. I need to focus more on relaxing my upper body and taking time to shake out the tension from my arms when I can.

We had six flats total on the ride (I had one on my front tire after a crash into the bushes) and that took up most of our stop time.

The last section was difficult for me because I had started to lose it physically. I could feel I wasn't as strong and that always affects my confidence on a trail.

I ended up coming to an abrupt halt on my bike at the end that hurt severely. In fact as I write this post two days later, it still hurts. I came off the bike fast and smashed my "parts" into the stem/headset. I screamed/grunted for maybe 5 minutes because of the pain. It was pretty intense. I mean I wasn't going to have kids anyways right? Still I could do without the stabbing, shooting pain that I still feel from time to time. Maybe I need to bring a cup.

I will say it was cool to ride down the part of the trail that was managed by the Lazy W Ranch (I think it's Lazy W). They had steps installed and had Bible verse summaries posted on signs along the trail. It was nice to read Deuteronomy 6:5 as the last verse on the ride.

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

Amen.

Catching Up

It's been a while since my last post, so I figured I'd write down a few thoughts and experiences since the 12 Hours of Temecula post.

1. We've now reached the halfway point for the year and I'm at 1,340 miles. That's 340 more than my goal! I'm pretty stoked about this especially since I missed about three weeks due to vacation and a work trip.

I'm hoping to match that number for the second half, but I'm not sure I can. I had extra motivation to train and ride for distance in the first half of the year due to the three races I did, and as of now I have nothing scheduled for the second half of 2007. We'll see what happens.


2. Saw a rattlesnake on The Luge this past Thursday. I was riding with Matt and came across some hikers on The Luge (who hikes on The Luge?!?) and slowed down to pass them. Right after I passed I saw him. Well over two feet long and right smack dab in the middle of the trail.

One of the hikers threw some rocks at him and after he calmed down, he slithered into the brush. That's the third full grown rattler I've seen in the past year.


3. I finally conquered everything in Santiago Oaks/Weir Canyon. There were a few short sections that I found tough on the up and tough on the down, but I finally cleared 100% of the trail.

The biggest win was probably the technical section about halfway through Chutes, right before Waterfall. That left hand turn with all the steps and rocks has always seemed too risky to ride for me, but I finally did it and came out on top.


The first half of the year ends with a high considering how confident I am on technical stuff right now. I realize that the laws of mountain biking dictate that I will ride this high and get more and more confident until I crash, at which point I lose all my confidence. Haha.

Let's hope I don't get too hurt when I finally do eat it.